WOMEN who cheat on their partners can blame their family background, it seems.

A new survey has found that female cheats are likely to be following in the footsteps of their unfaithful mothers.

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Women are more likely to cheat if their mothers did

Dating site Illicit Encounters polled1,000 of their clients about the reasons behind their infidelity.

It found that a whopping 71 per cent of women who had cheated had mothers who had done the same.

But the same doesn’t apply to men.

Only 45 per cent of men who were unfaithful had fathers who had strayed.

It seems the sexes reacted differently to parental influence, with 66 per cent of females saying they felt they had “permission to cheat” because their mothers had done.

In contrast, 86 per cent of men said they would stop an affair if their father found out and disapproved.

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Daughters of cheats feel they have permission from mum

Even so, most of the people who responded agreed cheating was immoral, with 83 per cent of men and 89 per cent of women admitting that cheating was “not necessarily acceptable or morally correct.”

Christian Grant, a spokesperson for IllicitEncounters.com said: “Monkey see, monkey do, but in this instance, that’s better attributed to women.

“Contrary to popular belief, most men aren’t necessarily proud of the 'lad’ status given to them by their mates if they sleep around.

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“Though it might appear that way, deep down they fear the potential backlash from their fathers, irrespective of whether they have a history of cheating themselves.

"It’s a seemingly inexplicable difference in mentalities: women see their mother's transgressions as a permission to cheat, whereas men still feel a certain guilt hanging over their heads no matter their family history.”